I wasn’t saying it wasn’t a big deal. It’s not as bad as Joplin where 150 died in floods. Not nearly as much MSM coverage on that, btw. I was talking abut the media coverage trying to tell us its worse than Pompeii getting hit by the volcano.
If the MSM coverage got any worse that Cat 1 storm would have been called an Extinction Level Event.
You fail to realize a major flaw in the Saffir-Simpson scale - its failure to forecast surge with 'weaker' storms. Katrina, Chaley, Ike and now Sandy had surge two levels higher than their Saffir-Simpson scale would otherwise indicate. Some meterologists have a new scale called IKE - Integrated Kinetic Energy - which figures out the total energy of the storm and is a bettery predictor of surge. And Sandy had the highest IKE ranking in history. Which is why its effects were felt as far away as the Midwest and its surge impacting from NC to Rhode Island.
So much for your notion that it was a weak storm. BTW, it's kinda hard to hype an approaching tornado, since you typically don't have more than 20 minutes of warning for such, and there was plenty of media coverage afterwards.
I really think you just don't like our neck of the woods up here. Please, if you are going to keep pretending this was not a significant event, just stay off the threads. You and a few others sniping about the media attention being overblown got this one wrong.
Using your logic, Ike was over-hyped because it was ‘just’ a Category 2.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ike
During the night of September 10, Ike exhibited a rapid drop in central pressure, falling from 963 mbar (28.44 inHg) to 944 mbar (27.88 inHg) as it passed over the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico. This drop was not reflected by wind speed, however, which only increased to 100 mph (160 km/h) from 85 mph (140 km/h). Multiple wind maxima were noted by the National Hurricane Center, indicating the structure was absorbing and distributing energy over a large area, rather than concentrating it near the center. The pressure was significantly lower than normal for a low-end Category 2 hurricane, as 944 mbar (27.88 inHg) is more typical of a strong Category 3 or a Category 4 hurricane.[2]
Over the next two days, Ike maintained a steady course towards Galveston and Houston. It increased only slightly in intensity to 110 mph (175 km/h) – the high end of Category 2 – but exhibited an unusually large wind field. This caused a projected storm surge of a Category 4 height though the windspeeds were that of a Category 2.
Deeper barometric pressure than the S-S category would indicate. Wide windfield. And surge two categories higher. Sounds a lot like Sandy.